Prologue
by Sherlock's Imaginary Friend
Summary: Every person in Konoha could tell you that the genin teams were picked with care.


Every person in Konoha could tell you that the genin teams were picked with care. Whether they were a civilian child or ANBU captain, each person understood that the mix of people in the teams would make or break them. After all, many of these teams would become closer than family, most working together in some capacity for the rest of their lives.

However, the amount of knowledge surrounding the process of choosing each team changed drastically.

From their entry into the ninja academy when they were five, genin were taught by a single teacher (baring extreme or unusual circumstances) until they reached graduation age. This was made a necessity by the large amounts of information the academy teachers had to acquire about all of their charges. While the ideal shinobi worked in teams, their individual needs had to be taken into account to create the strong sense of camaraderie that Konoha used. Keeping a single teacher for each group meant that they did not have to continually pass on information about each student to the next teacher, and allowed them to concentrate on gaining more detailed knowledge about their pupils. This in turn meant that each student had a teacher that knew how to teach each of them, and, more importantly, someone that could provide information about the effectiveness of potential teams.

The role of the academy teachers was a challenging one. They had the overwhelming task of, first and foremost, teaching a group of wanna-be shinobi. This often meant that the children had massive egos and even larger amounts of energy. Fights were common with these circumstances, and without intervention, often became deadly once the students were cleared to carry the live weapons of their chosen trade.

In addition to this daunting task, the teachers were also given the duty of weeding out those that were not suited to the life of a ninja. Whether this was due to an imbalanced emotional state that would get them, and others, killed or a lack of skills and raw talent, the decision rested heavily on the shoulders of the academy teachers. They were also made to stand by this decision every time they met with the parents of said child and firmly suggested that their precious spawn be re-enrolled in civilian society.

They were also given another significant task. Every year each teacher was made to suggest suitable genin teams, weather they held the graduating year or not. The majority of teachers stressed over this, considering it the most important part of their work. Every year many pages were filled with notes and scrapped before the year's final suggestions were passed up to the Hokage.

The teams had to be well thought-out. Specialty had to be taken into consideration. As a group, the genin would need to have some skill in common. That being said, the group had to also have a diverse enough skill set to be able to handle other mission types. It was pointless to have a team that were only good at tracking or capturing. The teacher also have to be careful to make sure that there was enough potential in each team. They couldn't justify creating a team full of their best students, only to leave the worst students as their own group. If, for some reason the jounin passed the worst of their ranks, the genin would be dead weight, likely resulting in the jounin's death.

More importantly, most teachers felt, was how the children interacted. Teamwork was the reason that Konoha was one of the most renowned ninja villages. This meant that above everything else, the teachers had to see, in some way, the groups interacting with each other as a team. They had to be able to work together at some level, and there had to be potential for seamless interaction within the group.

Umino Iruka placed this particular quality far above all others. Although they may argue among themselves, Iruka watched when one of the ninja harmed themselves or others, and kept careful note of each of the children's reactions.

The results were often surprising. He was constantly taken aback by what he saw as his little charges grew year by year and their attention towards each other shifted.

He watched as Sakura, one of the girls from a civilian family went from a quiet presence that hid away with Hinata to a confident young girl though her friendship with Ino. He saw as this pushed the Hyuga girl into a closer camaraderie with Shino who, in turn, reached out to the kind hearted Chouji. He saw Kiba walk away from his attempts at a friendship with the Nara heir to try and take on the youngest Uchiha.

Years later, Iruka mystified as to the reasons, witnessed the unshakable friendship of Ino and Sakura was torn asunder within a week. The change resulted in Ino's mothering focus moving from the once shy girl to two of the troublemakers in his class. He saw how this motivated Shikamaru into placing effort into his friendship with the young Akimichi.

Iruka watched as tiny discrepancies that would normally go unnoticed moulded a picture at odds with what the casual observer would have distinguished. He saw this create solid friendships, ones that would last long into the future. These were ninja that would more than have each other's back- lending their friend money for a loan and dragging them away from the bar when they'd had enough. These were bonds that would have them _hold_ the other's backs, standing side-by-side before any obstacle; be it an attacking ninja or an army, they would keep each other alive or die together trying.

The final draft of each academy student's suggested team would be recorded into their file, marked for only the Hokage to see. Upon their successful graduation, the Hokage would read over the lists and make the final choice for the teams, and assigning jounin that he saw would be suitable for the genin's ability.

Although Iruka wasn't sure if he was really supposed to, he had kept his lists of genin team recommendations as a starting point for himself each year. They were messy from hastily added information and lines through names as he edited the teams, scrawling specialties by each group, and reminders of interactions. He was perhaps the only teacher to plan his teams throughout the year, editing them as he felt was needed. The end result meaning he had a fair idea of how his thoughts had run through his years as a teacher. He frowned down at each year's final listing. Although the students' personalities and social interactions had changed, he noticed that there was one team that was constant though the years. In his own notes the group stood out due to the lack of information grouped around them.

At first glance (or after five closer inspections, really), grouping one of the Uchiha progenies, the Kyuubi brat and a random child of some civilians didn't seem like a good idea. Iruka had never really been able to break these children apart due to the potential that he saw in them.

On their own, only Sasuke had anything remarkable about himself, and that could be said to be a result of his heritage and upbringing. Like most children from a civilian family, Sakura's fitness was low compared to the children of ninja, although her theoretical understanding was brilliant, placing her at the top of the class.

The only thing that was mildly remarkable about Naruto was that Iruka hadn't kicked him out of the academy. He somehow managed to scrape though each and every test, constantly the bottom of the class, though never failing. His sunny disposition frustrated Iruka to his wits end and the never ending pranks pushed him far beyond what he could tolerate.

The three never seemed to really interact with each other. He just saw how they reacted, seeming to shift in response to the others, whether it was physically or emotionally. They seemed to track the test scores of group, even understanding each other's fighting style- their favourite moves and their biggest weaknesses. Iruka had pit groups of the children against each other in mock fights to gauge a variety of information, and he noticed that if he placed two of the trio into a group, they always seemed to win. When Iruka had separated the three completely, however, the results would shift and change in a way that was more natural.

However, Iruka didn't see a specialty for the group. Sasuke was born to fight; his level of taijutsu and ninjustsu far outstripped that of his fellow academy students, and his calculating mind allowed him to use his gifts to a devastating effect. He would become even more deadly if he managed to activate his Sharingan. So far, Sakura had yet to manifest any kind of specialty other than her dazzling theory work and chakra control. Naruto was both exceptional and terrible at stealth. He had been acting up to gain attention from the moment he had stepped into Iruka's classroom wearing his kill-me-orange jacket and pants. However, after a particularly well done prank, jounin would have to be dispatched to find the wayward preteen. Even at the age of five, Naruto had somehow been able to hide from or outrun the chuunin that were sent after him and had sometimes set up cleverly disguised traps as a part of his prank.

Iruka carefully wrote his team recommendation draft for each of his students, assuming that all of the potential genin graduated. He sighed as he finished his listing. Despite everything that the trio had counting against them, he had a feeling that they could be great.

 _Uzumaki Naruto_

 _Haruno Sakura_

 _Uchiha Sasuke_

All the three really needed, he thought, passing the page up to the Hokage, was someone to give them a chance.

"Well, my first impression is... I hate you." Hatake Kakashi was not well known among the shinobi of Konoha as being particularly kind or tactful.


End file.
